The Gunman

For F*** Magazine

THE GUNMAN

Director : Pierre Morel

Cast : Sean Penn, Jasmine Trinca, Javier Bardem, Idris Elba, Peter Franzén, Ray Winstone, Mark Rylance

Genre : Action/Thriller

Run Time : 105 mins

Opens : 9 April 2015

Rating : NC-16 (Violence and Scene of Intimacy)

Middle-aged, grimacing, gun-toting heroes seem to be in vogue. Sean Penn probably looked at Liam Neeson’s recent output and went “hey, I can do that.” In this action thriller, Penn plays Jim Terrier, a former private military contractor hired by a mining corporation to assassinate the minister of mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo circa 2006. Also a part of the team were Felix (Bardem) and Cox (Rylance). Eight years later, Terrier believes he has escaped his former life, working for a non-government organization in the Congo, when his past comes calling, reopening old wounds. With the help of his old friend Stan (Winstone), Terrier tracks down his former partners to get to the bottom of things, trekking from the Congo to London to Barcelona to Gibraltar. In the meantime, he has caught the attention of Interpol agent Barnes (Elba). Caught in the crossfire is Annie (Trinca), Terrier’s ex-girlfriend whom he has never quite managed to forget.

            From beginning to end, The Gunman just feels like a wholly cynical exercise. First, there’s the matter of its name – the film is based on Jean-Patrick Manchette’s novel The Prone Gunman and that is a cooler, more distinctive title. We know we’re not supposed to let our personal attitudes towards actors’ off-screen personas colour our critique but here, it’s impossible not to think the only reason Sean Penn did this is because he smugly thought it was just that easy. This is Penn’s first action movie, and we can just picture him looking at Taken and saying “pfft, I can do that in my sleep”. He’s even hired the director of the first Taken film, Pierre Morel, to helm this project. Penn sports bulging biceps and looks to be in fighting fit shape, but somehow, he can’t quite pull it off, his physique coming off more like an ill-fitting suit than anything else. It appears that this particular archetype is a mite trickier to convincingly execute than Penn first thought – even for an Oscar-winner like himself.

            There is nothing special to the action here at all. With the bog-standard shootouts, fisticuffs and explosions, it’s a snooze for anyone who’s seen more than a couple of action flicks in their lifetime. The climactic confrontation takes place in a bull-fighting ring, which seems like a great setting for a unique set-piece, but the finale is still quite anticlimactic. It’s also difficult to take this self-styled gritty, contemplative action movie seriously thanks to the half-baked, sometimes hilarious dialogue. The screenplay, credited to Don MacPherson, Pete Travis and Penn himself, contains some jaw-dropping clunkers. For example, Idris Elba, who can usually make anything sound awesome, is given an unwieldy speech which begins with the line “ever have one of those days where every law is Murphy’s Law?” This then segues into an incredibly clumsy treehouse analogy, and ends with Elba quipping “get my drift, cowboy?”

            Likely thanks to its status as a vanity project, what looks on the surface like a top-shelf supporting cast plays second fiddle to Penn – big time. Elba gets the shortest shrift, his talents woefully underused here. Javier Bardem also isn’t in this for as much as the trailers imply, squeezing in a hammy performance before his time onscreen is up. Ray Winstone plays the same character he always does – the street-smart, wizened Brit tough guy, except here he’s “trustworthy ally” rather than “scary gangster’. Penn had apparently wanted to work with Mark Rylance so much he moved the shooting schedule around to accommodate him. The acclaimed stage and screen actor, who’ll next be seen in Spielberg’s Bridge of Spies, does have fun with the limited material he’s given to work with. Jasmine Trinca’s Annie is a female lead of the most stereotypical sort – she works for an NGO, as antihero mercenaries’ girlfriends often do, and knows nothing about her ex-boyfriends dangerous past, needing to be rescued at every turn.

            The Gunman is neither entertainingly explosive enough to pass as escapist spectacle nor is it sufficiently cerebral and intense to be a dramatic action thriller. Our lead character could’ve been played by anyone really, but ironically enough, Penn with all his plaudits just can’t carry this action movie.

Summary: Sean Penn makes for an awkward action hero and the film wastes its supporting cast, The Gunman shooting mostly blanks.

RATING: 2 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

            

The Counsellor

For F*** Magazine

THE COUNSELLOR

Director: Ridley Scott
Cast:    Michael Fassbender, Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem, Brad Pitt, Dean Norris, John Leguizamo, Natalie Dormer, Rosie Perez, Richard Cabral, Sam Spruell
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Run Time: 118 mins
Opens: 28 November 2013
Rating: M18 (Sexual Scene, Violence and Coarse Language)

Why do people swim with sharks? After all, sharks have a long-standing reputation as fearsome creatures, nature’s perfect predator, and the self-preservation instinct in all of us dictates that we stay as far away from them as possible. Perhaps some have nerves of steel, others wish to face their fears; some are drawn to the allure of living on the edge, others convinced that the circumstances are controlled and safe and that sharks are largely misunderstood.



Here, our “swimmer” is the Counsellor of the title (Fassbender), otherwise unnamed. He seems to have everything: he’s handsome, wears lots of Armani and is very much in love with his girlfriend Laura (Cruz). He has, however, run into money troubles and decides to enter into an illicit drug deal with eccentric kingpin Reiner (Bardem). Within Reiner’s circle are his vampy love Malkina (Diaz) and middleman Westray (Pitt). The Counsellor is also the court-appointed lawyer to convict Ruth (Perez), mother of a high-ranking cartel figure (Cabral). Of course, things go awry, as things must, the Counsellor’s existence crumbling apart as the days go by, all he holds dear at stake.



The Counsellor is directed by Ridley Scott, from a script by nigh-legendary novelist Cormac McCarthy, author of No Country for Old Men, The Road, All the Pretty Horses and Blood Meridian. The Counsellor is the veteran writer’s first screenplay, and what an unfortunate clunker this is. The dialogue consists almost exclusively of endless strings of platitudes, opaque threats and nauseating anecdotes of violence and sex. Cringe-worthy, faux-portentous lines like “I think the truth has no temperature” crop up repeatedly. The shootouts and a car chase seem like very perfunctory insertions, as if they’re there only to fulfil some unwritten requirement about a thriller film involving the drug trade.



Yes, Ridley Scott has earned his reputation as a well-regarded director and does stage some shocking moments of graphic violence fairly effectively. There’s a bit with a motorcycle and a trip wire, and a scene involving the deployment of a “bolito”, a nasty motorised garrotte. The problem is, the material isn’t very cinematic and it seems even he finds it hard to make two people talking to each other look interesting or dynamic.



In addition to the pedigree behind the camera, the film’s mostly solid cast also contributes to how ultimately disappointing it is. Seeing all those names on the poster should whet the appetite and admittedly, these actors aren’t bad. Michael Fassbender’s Counsellor seems to be caught in a moral dilemma and he does have some moments of gut-wrenching emotion – but we barely get to know the character at all and he’s a somewhat smug guy whose troubles are of his own making, making it difficult to sympathise with him in spite of Fassbender’s best efforts. He was a lot more interesting as the android David in Scott’s previous film Prometheus.



Real-life husband and wife Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz are in this, though they do not share the screen together. Both are alumni of Cormac McCarthy film adaptations; Bardem having starred in No Country For Old Men and Cruz in All the Pretty Horses. Bardem appears to be having fun with the role, flamboyant and equal parts affable and shady and carrying hints of his Bond villain Silva from last year’s Skyfall. Cruz’s Laura is very much “the girlfriend”, doing nothing actually of note through the whole film beyond a roll in the hay with the Counsellor and some poolside flirting with Malkina. Brad Pitt in his supporting role will make moviegoers go “oh hey, it’s Brad Pitt in a supporting role” and that’s about it.



Of course, there’s one performer who absolutely pulls the whole thing down with her every time she’s on screen: Cameron Diaz. The name conjures up images of ditzy blonde characters clapping their hands and squealing in delight. She is far from the first person who comes to mind when one thinks “femme fatale”, and she amply demonstrates how inept she is with stilted line delivery and laughable posturing. In fact, she attempted to affect a Barbadian accent, but test audiences found it so distracting that she was forced to re-dub all her dialogue in post-production. Angelina Jolie was attached to the role for a time and there’s no question that she would have been a better fit. Looking at Malkina’s character poster, it seems the poster designer’s brief was “make Cameron Diaz look as much like Angelina Jolie as possible.” We can tell the difference, we really can. Even looking past Diaz’s performance, the character is written as a man-eating, wicked wildcat, followed everywhere by two pet cheetahs and sporting a cheetah tattoo. It’s a caricature that beggars belief.



The Counsellor comes off as one of those films that imagines itself to be far cleverer than it actually is, appearing daring and edgy but ultimately hollow, unpalatable and unsatisfying. Its top-tier cast are given pages of drivel to spout; a pity since Cormac McCarthy’s first screenplay was an eagerly-anticipated work. More alienating and off-putting than thrilling and absorbing, The Counsellor flounders even under Scott’s direction and will leave audiences drowning in a miasma of highfalutin excess.

SUMMARY: The Counsellor lays down the law, crushing its illustrious cast, prolific writer and celebrated director flat.

RATING: 2 out of 5 Stars

Jedd Jong

Skyfall

For F*** Magazine, Singapore

SKYFALL

2012
Starring: Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris

Directed by: Sam Mendes

Following MGM’s filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2010, it seemed that the sky really was falling for Bond fans everywhere. The future of the film franchise was put in jeopardy, and, for a while, it was a very strong possibility that Quantum of Solace would be the last James Bond film ever — which, for many, would have been disappointing to say the least. Thank goodness that Bond’s future seems brighter than ever with this triumphant 50^thanniversary celebration.

The film opens in Istanbul, where Bond (Craig) is thrust right into the frenzied pursuit of Patrice (Ola Rapace), a French mercenary who has stolen a hard drive containing a list of NATO undercover agents embedded in terrorist cells. Bond is assisted by field agent Eve (Harris), and the mission goes awry. The repercussions make themselves felt: the names are leaked in a YouTube video, M (Dench) comes under pressure from Gareth Mallory (Fiennes), chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee, to call it quits, and MI6 falls victim to a vicious cyberterror attack. Bond follows a lead and tracks Patrice down to Shanghai, where he tangles with the mercenary in a high-rise skirmish. He also glimpses the enigmatic and beautiful Sévérine (Bérénice Marlohe), whom he meets again at a lavish floating casino in Macau. Bond asks to be taken to the woman’s employer, thus encountering the villain of the piece, Raoul Silva (Bardem). Silva is a flamboyant, psychopathic figure who bears quite the grudge against M, and perpetrated the attack on MI6 headquarters. Bond realizes that this mission is far more personal than it first appears — and perhaps just as much for M as it is for him.

In Skyfall, Bond is asked what his hobby is. “Resurrection” is his reply — and this is resurrection of the most glorious kind. Skyfall sets right many perceived problems viewers had with the previous installment. This being the 23^rd official Bond film, some might say he’s a little long in the tooth, but Skyfall examines and proves the character’s relevance. With Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes at the helm, this is a very stylish, good-looking film; nine-time Oscar nominated cinematographer Roger Deakins serves up startlingly gorgeous imagery. Adele’s theme song is many times better than the Jack White/Alicia Keys trainwreck “Another Way to Die,” and it plays over Daniel Kleinman-designed opening credits that make strong reference to plot points throughout the film, instead of serving as a mere light show. Many wrote off the first two Daniel Craig-starring Bond films, Quantum in particular, as vainly aping the Bourne movies. Well, that’s definitely no longer the case (even though Bourne alumnus Albert Finney is in this too), as Skyfall’s tone strikes a near-perfect balance between the tough and gritty and glamorous and smooth, with a strong emotional current running through it all.

Daniel Craig is back in the saddle, the days of fans crying foul over his casting as the iconic character well and truly behind him. There’s a moment in the opening action sequence that’s in the trailers: Bond uses an excavator to tear the roof of a train carriage open, climbs on the excavator’s arm, leaps into the train and adjusts his cufflinks after he lands. That pretty much sums up Bond’s characterization: he’s willing to get his hands dirty and is rather brash, but at the same time is growing into the slick, suave agent he should be. This film also does something traditionally considered rather taboo in Bond films — delving into the character’s past, and it does so pretty well.  Many Bond films struggle with fitting M into their stories. Well, one could go so far as to say Skyfall is really M’s story, with Bond happening to become embroiled in it. Judi Dench is better than ever as the character; a woman hardened by years in a particularly challenging line of work, and someone who has to reconcile personal sentiments with duty. Also at MI6 is Ben Whishaw as the new incarnation of Q, Bond’s quartermaster, and, traditionally, the curmudgeon who begrudgingly hands out his gadgets to him. While former Qs John Cleese and, before him, the late Desmond Llewelyn were slightly older gentlemen, Skyfall runs in the opposite direction with a rather young, “adorkable” Q, whom Bond almost immediately writes off because of his youth. Whishaw and Craig share remarkable chemistry, and it would be a sin not to have this Q continue to appear in future Bond movies. The ever-dependable Ralph Fiennes ties it all together as the meddling bureaucrat who might not be that big of a jerk after all. This film also does something traditionally considered rather taboo in Bond films, delving into the Bond character’s past — and it does so pretty well.

So, how about the Bond villain and the Bond girls? Oscar-winner Javier Bardem puts in a spine-chilling performance as Silva, the villain. He’s proven he can play unhinged in No Country for Old Men, but Silva is a psycho of a different stripe. Bardem’s over-the-top portrayal is sometimes comic and harks back to villains of old. Silva is something of an impetuous child, but behind the loudness and the posturing lays a bitter, broken soul. Not every actor can convincingly inhabit a character of this sort. Naomie Harris has a nicely playful chemistry with Daniel Craig; Eve and Bond’s mutual flirtation providing much respite from the rather intense proceedings. Bérénice Marlohe makes for a stunning, exotic Bond girl and gets to share a scintillating shower scene with 007 himself. However, this isn’t a Bond film that will be primarily remembered for its women.

What it will be remembered for is its ending, a showdown which I’ve been kindly told not to spoil. If there’s one “issue” with the film, one which is reinforced by the ending, it’s that this is clearly a movie best enjoyed by Bond aficionados. It’s less action-driven than one might expect a modern-day Bond film might to be, and is a love letter to Bond in commemoration of his 50 years onscreen. As such, more casual viewers might feel just a teeny bit left out. It doesn’t attempt to chuck out everything the older Bond movies are remembered for; instead teasing some of those elements and building upon them. The Aston Martin DB5 from Goldfinger appears, complete with the same license plate and all the frills from that film — a symbol of the healthy nostalgia Skyfall possesses. By the movie’s end, it seems as if the Daniel Craig-starring Bond movies have found their footing at last, having incorporated more classic motifs into their framework – and fans can toast their martinis to Bond’s sterling return.

SUMMARY: Skyfall is a Bond film that’s worth the wait, one that’s worthy of marking Bond’s golden anniversary, and one that Bond devotees will welcome with open arms. Here’s to 50 more years at the movies, 007!

RATING: 4.5 out of 5 STARS

Jedd Jong