Movie Review Not Easily Broken

Not Easily Broken (2009) 

Directed by Bill Duke 

Written by Brian Bird

Starring Morris Chestnut, Taraji P. Henson, Kevin Hart, Wood Harris, Jennifer Lewis 

Release Date January 9th, 2009 

Published January 9th, 2009 

I think we can all be forgiven for mistaking Not Easily Broken for yet another Tyler Perry production. A serious minded drama about a middle class African American couple with marital problems who often turn to religion for answers. All you need is Madea head snapping her way through some life lessons and you have a typical Tyler Perry product.

If that sounds like a negative critique it's not meant as such. The fact is, Perry has grown as an artist over his relatively short feature film career and with his good heart and great intentions, any film would be lucky for the comparison. The makers of Not Easily Broken can be thankful for the comparison. Though the film is not as thoughtful and compelling as Perry's Why Did I Get Married? It has similar goals and ideals and comes close to the quality.

Not Easily Broken stars Morris Chestnut and Taraji P. Henson as Dave and Clarice, a married couple on the verge of divorce. After nearly 15 years of marriage the spark is gone and the couple spends most of their time arguing. Clarice can't stand that Dave spends so much of his time coaching a little league team in the inner city. He says he might be more inclined to stay home if he had a son of his own.

Clarice is making great money in real estate and feels that having a child would derail her career ambitions. The dispute is made worse when a car accident leaves Clarice with a shattered leg that will require a lot of time and therapy. The injury invites Clarise's overbearing mother, Mary (Jennifer Lewis) to move in to care for her daughter and further drive the wedge between husband and wife.

Mary has never liked Dave. Then again, as we learn throughout, she's never really liked any man since her husband ran out on her. To make matters more complicated, Dave develops an off work relationship with Clarice's physical therapist, a white woman named Julie (Maeve Quinlan) that could develop into something more than flirtation.

Julie has a son that Dave takes an interest in much to the chagrin of Clarice and the suspicion of even his closest friend, Brock (Eddie Cibrian), who has his eyes on the single mom.

Whether Dave and Clarise can save their marriage or if he might be better off with Julie is not so much the subject of Not Easily Broken as it is a plot point, albeit a dramatic plot point. What is of more interest to director Bill Duke is observing the little ways in which people who love each other can find ways to hurt each other.

Whether it's husband and wife, mother and son in  law, mother and daughter or just friend and friend, the people we care about are often the people who can hurt us the most. Duke observes this idea well even as it gives the movie a little bit of distance from a narrative drive that would make it more compelling.

In that way it's quite similar to Chris Rock's similarly themed I Think I Love My Wife. Both films are driven by the observation of behavior rather than in telling stories that are truly compelling in a classical movie fashion. There is nothing wrong with that approach except that it can leave many audiences expecting a plot that moves them along from one scene to the next wondering when something is actually going  to happen.

As this movie is based on a novel by the Reverend T.D Jakes, things do often come back to religion and director Bill Duke could not have chosen a more authoritative voice for the church than actor Albert Hall. In his brief scenes as the pastor who presided over Dave and Clarice's wedding and later as their counselor and confessor, Hall conveys wisdom and power with his words without being overbearing or relying on religious homily. It's a common sense approach that happens to be backed up by the moral force of religion.

Not Easily Broken is not a typical movie. The plot moves glacially and is more interested in the mini-moment than in moving audiences toward expected conclusions. The conclusions come eventually but they take a while. This will bore some audiences. However, if you're like me, you may be compelled by the little observations. You have to fill in a few of the blanks yourself to make the time pass and the film cheats a few times to score emotional points, but Not Easily Broken, for me, is a moving, well intentioned work of care and honesty.

Movie Review National Security

National Security (2003) 

Directed by Dennis Dugan 

Written by Jay Scherick

Starring Martin Lawrence, Steve Zahn, Colm Feore, Bill Duke, Eric Roberts, Timothy Busfield

Release Date January 17th, 2002

Published January 16th, 2002 

Oh boy. Another mismatched buddy cop movie!

National Security, starring Martin Lawrence and Steve Zahn is yet another formula action-comedy, but, for once, the comedy part of the action-comedy is actually funny.

Zahn is an LAPD officer named Hank. One night, he and his partner (Timothy Busfield in an effective cameo) happen upon a break in at a storage facility and, in their attempt to capture the criminals, Hank's partner is shot and killed. Martin Lawrence is Earl, an LAPD trainee who flunks out of the academy for being a little too aggressive. Hank and Earl meet for the first time as Hank comes upon Earl trying to retrieve his keys from his locked car. 

Thinking that Earl may be trying to steal the car, Hank asks for identification and proof of ownership of the car. Earl sees Hank's questions as racist and refuses, leading to a confrontation that is a parody of the Rodney King incident. A guy with a video recorder catches Hank trying to swat a bee that is flying around Earl's head. From the cameraman's perspective, it does look like Hank is beating Earl and, when the incident goes to trial, Earl does nothing to change that perception. Hank is convicted of assault, fired from his job, and is sentenced to six months in jail.

Once released from jail, Hank takes a job working as a security guard while searching for the group of bad guys who killed his partner. As fate would have it, Hank's search leads him to a warehouse where Earl works as a security guard and the two team up in a gunfight against the bad guys. The bad guys, lead by--of all people--Eric Roberts, get away and Earl and Hank are now forced to team up and take them down. Unsurprisingly, they become friends in the process.

Director Dennis Dugan, a master of formula trash (Happy Gilmore, Saving Silverman), is the perfect choice to direct this collection of action clichés and one liners. All you need is a director who can make a certain scene reasonably in frame and you're done.

What makes National Security a little better than most films of its formula is its humor, which deals frankly with race and violence and is funny. Lawrence is particularly sharp with the racial humor and Zahn is a surprisingly good foil. If it weren't for Zahn's ridiculously distracting facial hair I would have loved his performance, but I missed some of it watching his mustache come loose or fall off.

National Security has the feel of Lawrence's other slickly produced action comedies--Blue Streak and Bad Boys--except not as stylish. National Security is technically well produced but is all surface and no depth. In case you were wondering the answer is yes, there is a scene where the heroes outrun a giant fireball. You can't make a formula action movie without a slow motion fireball.

Movie Review Get Rich or Die Tryin'

Get Rich or Die Trying (2005) 

Directed by Jim Sheridan 

Written by Terrence Winter 

Starring 50 Cent, Terrence Howard, Joy Bryant, Bill Duke, Viola Davis 

Release Date November 9th, 2005

Published November 8th, 2005 

Right off the bat I should say that I am not a big fan of rapper 50 Cent. I enjoyed his breakthrough hit "In Da Club" despite it's subsequent ubiquity in every nightclub in the country. His follow ups have been in ever declining quality since. I have a great deal of respect for his rise from a drug dealer on the streets to a millionaire superstar and the tenacity and determination it must have taken to survive being shot nine times.

With that said, his film debut Get Rich Or Die Tryin' reminds me of his most recent CD's. Irrelevant, mainstream ego polishing that only intends to burnish the image of an already rich and successful superstar. If the film were more entertaining you could forgive that, but as it is Get Rich Or Die Tryin' is simply an exercise in vanity and finance.

In Get Rich or Die Tryin' 50 Cent plays a composite character version of his real self, Marcus aka Black Caesar, his rap nickname. Marcus grew up on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, the son of a drug dealing single mother who was murdered when he was 12 years old in a turf war. Young Marcus soon joins the family business slinging cocaine on street corners, eventually earning himself a place in a drug syndicate headed up by Levar (Bill Duke) and his second in command, Majestic (Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje), both of whom knew his mother.

Given his own territory and crew, including his childhood friends Antwan (Ashley Waters) and Keryl (Omar Benson Miller) and a newcomer named Justice (Tory Kittles), Marcus quickly becomes a big earner and a bigger target. Marcus is the target of not only cops but other gangs and even members of his own syndicate. A rivalry with Colombian dealers is a particularly dangerous situation that nearly takes the life of one of the members of his crew.

Eventually, as happens to most small time dealers, Marcus gets picked up by the cops and goes to prison. While in the joint he meets Bama (Terrence Howard), who saves his life during a knife fight. Bama encourages Marcus's life's dream to become a rapper and when the two are released Bama becomes the manager of Marcus' new career. This new career path includes leaving behind the syndicate much to the chagrin of Majestic who becomes a dangerous enemy.

Along the way, before he went to prison, Marcus falls for the beautiful Charlene (Joy Bryant). The two had been close friends as kids before she was sent away to live with relatives at a young age. Marcus sees Charlene on the street one day and the attraction is fully renewed. The two soon have a child on the way, yet another reason for Marcus to want to put his dangerous past behind him.

Directed by the venerable Irish director Jim Sheridan, Get Rich Or Die Tryin' tells Marcus' story from his first person perspective. The movie is about Marcus and is only vaguely an allegory for the struggle of the average inner city kid. Sheridan has some big ideas he wants to express and points he wants to make about poverty and struggle but his subject is only vaguely interesting.

The life of Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson has certainly been dramatic: his mother's death, his becoming a drug dealer at the age of 12, his having been shot nine times and surviving to become a world wide superstar. That is dramatic stuff.  So why is the movie so subdued and slightly mundane? The fault lies with Jackson.  His performance is passive to the point of non-involvement. For a world renowned superstar Jackson is surprisingly lacking in charisma even when on the microphone rapping.

Jackson is hurt further by acting opposite the excellent Terrence Howard. Not only does Howard outshine Jackson in this film about Jackson's own life but Howard's performance earlier this year in Hustle and Flow showed him to be an even more exciting rapper than Jackson.

Director Jim Sheridan was attracted to the idea of telling this story because he found parallels between the crime and poverty of inner city America and the blood drenched streets of his Irish youth at the height of religious and political warfare involving the Irish Republican Army. The comparison is relatively fair in terms of the violence and death involved in the lives of both but will the audience for Get Rich Or Die Tryin' care or even be aware of the comparison?

The most appealing part of Get Rich Or Die Tryin' is the soundtrack made up entirely of 50 Cent's music from his CD of the same title-- above average work for 50 Cent's most recent career efforts. However, there is not nearly as much time spent recording raps as there are scenes of the marble mouthed rapper's garbled gangster dialogue. 50 Cent's voice may be a plus in his rap career but it does nothing for his acting career. What music there is is okay but not great and nothing to match 50 Cent's breakthrough single.

Comparisons to Eminem's rap bio-pic 8 Mile are inevitable and I agree with the consensus that 8 Mile is the better of the two. But Get Rich Or Die Tryin' pales in other comparisons as well. In terms of movies about rap and hip hop, the music of Hustle and Flow blows away anything in Get Rich Or Die Tryin'. As far as movies about the struggles of the inner city gangster, 2004's Never Die Alone is better in terms of gritty urban violence and Boyz In The Hood remains the most lasting and impactful story of inner city struggle.

The fact is that the story of Get Rich Or Die Tryin would never be told if it were not the life story of a multi-platinum rap superstar. The story is relatively mundane when put alongside films of similar inner city settings. The violence in Get Rich Or Die Tryin' is anti-climactic and aside from Marcus' being shot nine times, the violence has little if any emotional impact. In interviews about reenacting having been shot nine times 50 Cent has said that the scene was not hard emotionally and he acts it as if it weren't that difficult.

Get Rich Or Die Tryin' is supposedly controversial for its violence, but the only thing interesting about the violence in this film is the indifference of the characters toward that violence. I would like to believe that the blase attitude the characters take toward violence is a function of the characters having become inured to it from having grown up with it their entire lives. However, my impression was that that the attitude was more a result of 50 Cent's cyborg-like performance. No fear, excitement or pain registers on 50 Cent's face no matter what happens to him, even having nine bullets pumped into him.

For a more unique view of 50 Cent's life and an unauthorized one at that, take a look at the new documentary 50 Cent: Refuse 2 Die from New Line Home Video. The doc claims to tell the real story of 50 Cent, his family, and his rise to the top of the rap game. I can't speak to the accuracy of Refuse 2 Die but I can tell you that it is more interesting than the fictionalized, sentimentalized version of 50 Cent's life depicted in Get Rich Or Die Tryin'.