Film Review: 2 Guns

2 Guns. Rated MA 15+ (strong violence). 109 minutes. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur. Screenplay by Blake Masters, based on the graphic novels by Steven Grant.

Verdict: Denzel and Mark are the new Oscar and Felix.

It should probably be illegal to have this much fun in the face of such reckless slaughter, but Masters’ (Law & Order: LA) excellent screenplay boasts an almost obscene amount of comedy – delivered with absolute relish and megawatts of star power by Denzel Washington and Mark Wahlberg.

When undercover Drug Enforcement Administration officer Robert Trench (Washington) and his co-conspirator Michael Stigman (Wahlberg) are easily able to carry off a daring bank robbery that was supposed to end very differently, they find themselves on the run and caught up in an endless web of double-crossing and intrigue. As the motives of everyone involved become increasingly murky, Trench and Stigman have little choice but to match wits and try to stay one step ahead of the people who want them dead.

It’s not surprising that Wahlberg has teamed up with the Icelandic-born Kormákur again after their collaboration on Contraband (2012). Kormákur, like very few directors, manages to elicit a fantastic performance from Wahlberg, who responds with an engaging, often hilarious star turn that is brimming with confidence. Washington, too, fresh from his magnificent performance in Flight (2012), romps through as the police officer who inadvertently finds himself on the wrong side of the law.

The outstanding ensemble, including Paula Patton (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Precious), Bill Paxton (Titanic) and Edward James Olmos (Dexter), all provide excellent support to the two leads. Paxton (as ruthless CIA operative Earl) and Olmos (drug lord Papi Greco), who are both equally determined to recover their money at any cost, succeed in ramping up the stakes every time they are onscreen.

Like Quentin Tarantino, Kormákur and Masters refuse to take any prisoners, and it’s a credit to them and their two stars, that we hope these rascals live to see another day. They certainly deserve to.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Flight

Flight. Rated MA 15+ (strong themes, drug use and nudity). 138 minutes. Directed by Robert Zemeckis. Written by John Gatins.

Verdict: A powerful, uncompromising study of the perils of addiction.

As painfully intimate, human dramas go, it is hard to imagine a more compelling recent offering than this. Combining a terrifying plane crash with the potent and destructive issues associated with alcohol and drug addiction is the masterstroke in Gatins’s (Real Steel) terrific, Oscar®-nominated screenplay. In the hands of Zemeckis (The Polar Express, Cast Away, What Lies Beneath, Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Back to the Future) and his frequent collaborators, cinematographer Don Burgess and editor Jeremiah O'Driscoll, the results are utterly engrossing.

Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) is an airline pilot. He is also an alcoholic. When a disastrous mechanical failure occurs on one of his flights and he manages to avert what could have been an accident of catastrophic proportions, he is hailed as a hero. But when the hospital’s toxicology report reveals traces of alcohol and cocaine in his blood system at the time of the accident, the airline and the pilot’s union do everything within their power to avoid being held liable for the accident.

Washington is magnificent as the booze-soaked and drug-addled Whitaker, delivering a career-defining, Oscar®-nominated performance of immense range. He is brilliantly supported by Kelly Reilly (Sherlock Holmes), whose heroin-addicted Nicole meets Whitaker in hospital where they are both recovering – her from an overdose and him from the accident. This unlikely meeting leads to an extraordinary relationship between two individuals struggling to overcome their very personal addictions. This powerful, richly-layered study of the perils of addiction provides Flight with an uncompromising, rich vein of dramatic depth that is unexpectedly resolved in the penultimate scenes in front of the National Transportation Safety Board enquiry – lead with brutal efficiency by the superb Melissa Leo (The Fighter).

Under Zemeckis’s masterful direction, the stricken airliner sequences are astonishing, but we soon find ourselves in the equally-involving world of very human consequences. Consequences that, one day – even with the very best intentions of friends, loved ones, colleagues and family – may become impossible to continue to deny.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film Review: Unstoppable

Unstoppable. Rated M (infrequent coarse language). 98 minutes. Directed by Tony Scott. Screenplay by Mark Bomback.

The latest race-against-impending-doom high-octane thriller from Scott (Top Gun, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Enemy of the State) has left the railyard – un-manned and under its own ever-increasing speed.

In pursuit of his out-of-control loco adventure, Tony Scott, the younger brother of director Ridley Scott (Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Robin Hood), is helped considerably by the ‘based on a true story’ hook and Bomback’s (Die Hard 4) screenplay which absolutely fits the boys-own adventure blueprint – chock-a-block with dare-devil heroics, stunts galore and a mean, lean line in flawed relationship backstory.

Charged with reining in the rogue locomotive and its rolling stock laden with toxic chemicals before it derails and explodes in the middle of a heavily-populated American town, Scott regular Denzel Washington (Frank, a veteran engineer) and Chris Pine (Will, a tyro conductor) throw themselves at the perilous tasks at hand with generous lashings of charismatic macho abandon. Rosario Dawson (Connie, the yard controller) and Kevin Dunn (Galvin, the rail company executive) provide fine support as ally and bombastic foe respectively.

Ben Seresin’s (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen) gritty, stylised cinematography and Chris Seagers’ (Saving Private Ryan) extravagant production design ensure that every authentic detail of the story’s rollicking execution is masterfully and atmospherically rendered. The editing by Chris Lebenzon (Pearl Harbor, Alice in Wonderland, Armageddon) and Robert Duffy never misses a frantic beat as Scott and Seresin’s camera swoops, sweeps and strains to capture the unfolding drama from every possible (and a couple of seemingly quite impossible) angles.

Nail-biters? You have been warned!

Pictured: Chris Pine in one of Unstoppable's rare (and momentary) pensive moments.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.

Film review: The Book of Eli

The Book of Eli. 117 minutes. Rated MA15+. Directed by Albert and Allen Hughes. Written by Gary Whitta.

Films about faith, and characters whose devotion to serving the word of God features prominently in the plot, have resulted in some extraordinary films over the years. Apart from the biblical epics like The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur, there is also Gene Hackman's memorable 'Reverend Scott' in The Poseidon Adventure and a young Julie Andrews serving Max von Sydow's will and missionary zeal in Hawaii. In 2004, Mel Gibson's controversial The Passion of the Christ (with its authentic Aramaic, Latin and Hebrew dialogue), divided audiences around the world – not only with its gruesome recreation of the death of Jesus, but also the resulting accusations of anti-semitism and misappropriation of Christian ideology which managed to either outrage, or inspire, practically everybody.

In The Book of Eli, an apocalyptic event involving the sun has turned earth into a desolate wasteland. Eli (Denzel Washington) is heading west, carrying with him a book that holds the key to the future of humanity. Along the way, he encounters marauding savages, murderers and rapists who roam the barren environment in search of food, water and possessions. Eventually, he arrives at a small town – home to a paranoid community ruled by self-proclaimed leader Carnegie (Gary Oldman), whose moronic henchmen return each night from having been out searching for the very book Eli has in his possession. When Carnegie discovers that the book is finally within reach, a furious battle of wills for its ownership ensues – a battle that can only result in one victor.

Shot in arresting monochromatic visual style by cinematographer Don Burgess (Cast Away, Spider-Man, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) and accompanied by a fantastically atmospheric soundscape from Atticus Ross, Leopold Ross and Claudia Sarne, the Hughes brothers (From Hell, Menace II Society) have fashioned a bleak, sinister and oppressively violent tale of one man's journey to spiritual redemption. Washington is compelling as the devoted Eli and Mila Kunis (better known as the voice of Meg Griffin in The Family Guy) is perfect as his unlikely protegé 'Solara', who ends up being incredibly handy with a grenade.

The film's single greatest weakness, however, is Whitta's flawed script which, even though it manages to impressively mask the sting in its tail, serves up relentless and gratuitous violence in place of character development. It also manages to misjudge a critical point of faith-based reference, which is that it is our hope that faith should ultimately serve to unite us. Here, it only divides us into two groups: one that will revere the purpose of Eli's noble but excessively blood-lusty endeavour, and another that will not be able get out of the cinema fast enough once it's all over.

Pictured: Denzel Washington and Mila Kunis in The Book of Eli.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspapers Group and was published in the print edition of the Geraldton Guardian.