Movie Review In the Fade

In the Fade (2017) 

Directed by Faith Akin

Written by Faith Akin

Starring Diane Kruger

Release Date November 23rd, 2017

Fatih Akin’s In the Fade was among the contenders for the Palme D’or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival and is now the German entry for nomination for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards. It’s a well-accomplished film centered on a strong, emotional performance from Diane Kruger of Inglorious Bastards fame. I’m left to wonder unfortunately, if the film gets more attention for its shock ending than for much of what takes place in the narrative.

Diane Kruger stars in In the Fade as Katja. We meet Katja on her wedding day via shaky cam footage of her inside the prison where her fiancée, Nuri (Numan Acar) is being held on drug charges. Cut to several years later, Nuri is out of prison and owns his own accounting business. The couple now has a son named Rocco who Mom drops off with Dad before heading to a spa date with her sister.

When she returns to the office, it is surrounded by police and the offices is in flames. Someone bombed the office and police want to know if it is related to Nuri’s past as a drug dealer or perhaps due to ties with Kurdish Muslims from his home country, Turkey. What police fail to look into initially is a young, German, blonde who left a bicycle unattended outside the office that day. Katja saw her and remarked on her obvious Aryan heritage. The implicit answer is Nazi.

In the Fade starts at something of a crawl but picks up speed when we arrive at the trial which is tense and well filmed. Director Akin has well cast every part of this courtroom drama and I found it impossible not to become riveted, especially when Katja takes the stand and finds herself under the intense scrutiny of the Defense Attorney, played by Johannes Krisch.

Find my full length review in the Geeks Community on Vocal

Movie Review Marlowe

Marlowe (2023)

Directed by Neil Jordan 

Written by William Monahan 

Starring Liam Neeson, Diane Kruger, Danny Huston, Adewale Akinnouye Agbaje, Jessica Lange

Release Date February 15th, 2023 

Published February 24th, 2023 

Marlowe is a stunningly mediocre film. An attempt to bring back the feel of 40s noir detective novels, in the vain of Raymond Chandler, using Chandler's creation, Detective Phillip Marlowe, Marlowe wanders, stumbles, plods and trips over oodles of over pronounced dialogue and a dimwitted 'mystery.' How bad is Marlowe? It made me wonder if I've ever found Liam Neeson entertaining. Seriously, I had to convince myself that I really did like the Taken movies. I think I did. I think... yeah. Neeson could not be more miscast in the role of a 1930s gumshoe in Los Angeles. 

Marlowe opens on a completely meaningless visual. A man is pacing back and forth dictating some odd thing to an attentive secretary. You think the man speaking is Marlowe and the secretary is his Girl Friday, the go-to gal, that reliable female pal from past detective movies. Nope, that's not Marlowe or his secretary. It's also not someone that the actual Phillip Marlowe is peeping in on for a case. So, why did we open on this visual? God help me, I have no idea. It's a completely disconnected visual. It's a seeming recreation from past Marlowe films and novels that I assume director Neil Jordan recreated simply to evoke Marlowe's of the past. 

The reveal of the actual Marlowe comes with the introduction of our Femme Fatale, that dangerous female client with the case that will test our detective's metal. Diane Kruger is our femme fatale in Marlowe and with her platinum blonde hair and tight dress, she certainly has the visual from a Phillip Marlowe mystery down pat. Sadly, she and Marlowe, as played by Liam Neeson, have to eventually speak and when they do, the hired boiled dialogue turns both actors into unintentionally comedic characters. There is a particular cadence to Raymond Chandler mysteries and neither Neeson or Kruger have that kind of cadence. In their mouths, these words come off like people stating written dialogue out loud and not the natural speech of two people who speak like this all the time. 

It's an odd and perhaps labored comparison but Marvel movie fans will understand. If you've seen Guardians of the Galaxy and then see the Guardians as directed by anyone other than James Gunn, they characters just don't sound right. You can tell James Gunn's cadence is missing and it throws off the way the Guardians typically come off on screen. That's especially true in Thor Love and Thunder and kind of true in the two most recent Avengers movies. That's how Neeson and Kruger sound when trying to deliver Raymond Chandler style hardboiled dialogue. It just hits the ear all wrong. 

Find my full length review at Geeks.media 

Movie Review: Unknown

Unknown (2011) 

Directed by Jaume Collet Serra 

Written by Oliver Butcher, Mandy Richardson, Stephen Cornwell

Starring Liam Neeson, January Jones, Diane Kruger, Aidan Quinn, Frank Langella

Release Date February 18th, 2011

Published February 17th, 2011

The transition from respected 'Actor' to action hero has been stunningly seamless for Liam Neeson. All it took in fact was one role, that of a man with a special set of skills and a kidnapped daughter in some Euro slum. “Taken” became an action phenomenon because Neeson the actor gave the over the top action gravitas; his acting as a badass became a whole new iconic identity as an actor.

With his new thriller “Unknown” essentially a pseudo sequel to “Taken” Neeson is set to fully monetize his new icon status.

Dr. Martin Harris and his wife Elizabeth (Mad Men's January Jones) arrive in Berlin looking like any other tourist of means. But when Martin leaves his briefcase behind at the airport and is nearly killed in an accident on his way to retrieve it the happy couple takes a shocking and disturbing turn.

Waking four days later from a coma in a Berlin hospital Martin can't remember how he got there and cannot understand why his wife never came looking for him. Returning to their hotel where he is supposed to be attending a scientific conference Martin makes a horrific discovery, Elizabeth doesn't know who he is and another, very similar looking man (Aiden Quinn) is posing as Dr. Martin Harris.

Is Martin crazy? Did the blow to his head completely scramble his brain? Why can't he get anyone he knows on the phone? All will be answered and while those answers will eventually become unsatisfying and even blindingly ludicrous, the journey toward those answers is a rollicking thriller ride that fans of “Taken” will find impossible to resist.

All I wanted from “Unknown” is for Liam Neeson to punch a bad guy in the throat and on this meager request Mr. Neeson delivers in spectacular fashion; “Unknown” may not be an official “Taken” sequel but Neeson delivers the kind of action badassery audiences crave from his newly minted action hero persona.

Yes, “Unknown” goes completely looney tunes in the last reel as Frank Langella arrives in the role of God of Exposition and ruins everything with explanatory dialogue that may as well have been delivered directly to the audience, but again, it's about the getting there.

Bruno Gans damn near steals “Unknown” right from under Liam Neeson. Playing a former member of the East German secret police who Martin turns to in order to find himself, literally find out who he himself is, Gans delivers a performance of measure and precision that would be Oscar worthy in a movie that academy members would actually watch.

Bottom line, fans of “Taken” will not be able to resist the nasty, violent charm of “Unknown.” Liam Neeson's astonishing talent for elevating B-movie material with his professionalism and imposing physicality is one of the great revelations of this short filmic decade. Neeson has changed the way we look at him as an actor as well as the action genre in general with the quality he brings to lowbrow material.

Movie Review Inhale

Inhale (2010) 

Directed by Baltasar Kormakur

Written by Baltasar Kormakur 

Starring Dermot Mulroney, Diane Kruger, Sam Shepard

Release Date October 22nd, 2010 

November 5th, 2010 

“Inhale” is a gloomy B-movie melodrama from Icelandic director Baltasar Kormakur who made a strong US debut back in 2005 with the underground hit “A Little Trip to Heaven” starring future Oscar nominees Forest Whitaker and Jeremy Renner. This time, with a far less flashy cast, Kormakur is telling a story that, like “A Little Trip to Heaven,” is about money and the root of all evil.

“Inhale” stars Dermot Mulroney as upstanding New Mexico District Attorney Paul Stanton. Paul and his wife Diane (Inglourious Basterds sire Diane Kruger) have a daughter (Mia Stallard) who is dying from a rare lung disorder. She needs a lung transplant but she is far too low on a long list of people waiting for a transplant.

Desperate, Paul uses a tip from his doctor (Rosanna Arquette) to blackmail a powerful friend (Sam Shepard) who used some low connections in Mexico to get an illicit heart transplant. Soon, Paul is in Juarez, Mexico, knocking on doors and getting the holy hell beat of him in his pursuit of a group of American doctors performing transplants for those with the cash to pay to move to the front of the line.

Dermot Mulroney is an actor who was always handsome enough to become a crossover mainstream star but it just never happened. Whether it was just his choice of roles or a conscious attempt to avoid the trappings of becoming a star, Mulroney has always toiled on the edges of fame in the uncanny valley between direct to video and made for cable.

In “Inhale” Mulroney finds a meaty role and plays it with a stalwart bullheaded determination that is invigorating to an otherwise shoddy narrative. There is a good deal of stalling going on in “Inhale.” Director Komakur uses an unnecessary device, shifting between the present and past, as a way of padding out the story to a feature length.

Yes, the flashbacks lay the groundwork for Paul’s motivation but there were more efficient ways of delivering the same information. A scene involving two anonymous characters, a young boy and his mother, and a violent car wreck feels exploitatively violent even as the aftermath helps set the odds that Paul is facing in getting a legal transplant for his daughter.

Later, in scenes set in Juarez, Komakur makes yet another exploitative choice in setting Paul up for blackmail by the men from whom he is seeking a black market transplant. Certainly, there had to be a more elegant form of blackmail than this scene involving Paul and a transvestite hooker. The wreck and the transvestite are both unnecessary and ugly additions that serve only to make an already grim story grimmer while padding out a story that barely has the juice for a feature length.

The violent car wreck, Paul’s repeated beatings and the transvestite distract and detract from a fine performance by Mulroney who nearly fights through it all to deliver the final blow in a surprising and unconventional finale. Sadly, as much as I enjoyed Mulroney’s performance and the underlying notion of the way rich people can treat the poor as commodities, right down to their organs, there is too much of Komakur’s absurd tendency toward B-Movie exploitation for me to recommend “Inhale.”

Movie Review National Treasure 2 Book of Secrets

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets 

Directed by Jon Turteltaub 

Written by Cormac Wibberley, Marianne Wibberley, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio 

Starring Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Ed Harris, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Helen Mirren, Harvey Keitel

Release Date December 21st, 2007 

Published December 19th, 2007

2004's National Treasure came out of nowhere to become a late season blockbuster. With its popular take on legendary conspiracies, big time action and stunts and its family safe PG rating, National Treasure was like a perfect map to blockbuster success.

Naturally, with a film so successful there would have to be a sequel and the crew of National Treasure is indeed back. Nicholas Cage returns to the role of Benjamin Franklin Gates, historian, adventurer and most of all treasure hunter. With his electronics wiz pal Riley (Justin Bartha), Ben has been chasing all sorts of treasures for years.

The latest adventure has an important personal connection. As Ben is lecturing to a group of students on the history of his famous family of adventurers and treasure hunters, he is confronted by Mitch Wilkerson (Ed Harris) who claims a scrap of paper from the diary of John Wilkes Booth proves that Gate's great great grandfather conspired to kill President Lincoln.

Knowing that his family history proves otherwise, Ben sets out on a new adventure to track down the evidence that proves his great great grandpa's innocence. The trail leads Ben, Riley and Ben's dad Patrick (Jon Voight) to an ancient book passed down through the ages from one President to another. It's the legendary presidential Book Of Secrets.

Home to all of the greatest conspiracies in history, the book holds the key to whether great great grandpa Gates was a traitor or not. Hot on the trail of the book as well is Wilkerson and his secret society of thugs and Harvey Keitel as an FBI agent whose job has long been keeping on what Ben Gates is up to.

It is impossible to deny the fun of the National Treasure movies. With their goofball stunts and good humor, the movies are inoffensive and easily digestible. While you are watching them you smile and chuckle and for most that will be enough to call it successful.

If you like your movies with low brain power and plenty of distracting explosions and diversions, you will love National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets. You won't recall the experience 10 minutes after it's over, but at least it won't take up space in your memory as it didn't in mine. I have seen National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets twice now and I still needed the Wikipedia plot description and Rottentomatoes reviews of my fellow critics to remind me that the film existed.

Forgettable, low watt entertainment, if you like movies the way you like a good candy bar or a can of soda, you'll like the disposable entertainment of National Treasure.... uh, what was that subtitle again? I forget?

Movie Review: Wicker Park

Wicker Park (2004) 

Directed by Paul McGuigan

Written by Brandon Boyce 

Starring Josh Hartnett, Rose Byrne, Matthew Lillard, Diane Kruger 

Release Date September 3rd, 2004 

September 2nd, 2004 

When Josh Hartnett starred in Jerry Bruckheimer’s awful blockbuster Pearl Harbor, his next-big-thing status was just hitting its stride. Then, his first solo starring gig, 40 Days and 40 Nights tanked. Then his shot at action stardom opposite Harrison Ford in Hollywood Homicide also failed. Suddenly the next big thing was next to nothing.

That may explain why the film Wicker Park, a once highly buzzed about remake of a French movie called L’Appartement, ended up in the September waste bin. It is quite a shame that MGM has chosen to give up on this film because it’s really not that bad.

A plot description for Wicker Park is a bit of a minefield. There are a number of important twists and turns that are better left unmentioned. What can I tell you without giving anything away? Well, Josh Hartnett stars as Matthew, a dour young ad exec who has just moved back to his old Chicago neighborhood, the artist enclave Wicker Park. Two years earlier Matthew moved to New York to escape the memories of a lost love.

Her name was Lisa (Diane Kruger) and it seemed like they would be together forever. Then out of the blue, right after he asked her to move in with him, she vanished. No note, no phone call, no explanation whatsoever. Despondent, he took the gig in New York and disappeared himself.

Now back in Chicago, Matt has reconnected with his old friend Lucas (Matthew Lillard), thanks to a chance meeting on the street while Lucas was leaving lunch with his girl, Alex. Alex has a mysterious connection to Matt that is one of the film’s more intriguing plot points. Later, as Matt is having dinner with his new fiancé Rebecca (Jessica Pare), he thinks that he saw Lisa leaving the restaurant, a sight that sends him into a tailspin and effects everyone he knows.

Director Paul McGuigan and writer Brandon Boyce, adapting the original French screenplay by Gilles Mimouni, have crafted a dense, often confusing story of lost love, manipulation and heartbreak. Step away from the movie at the end and you realize that this twist filled story has a rather thin plot. The film uses many flashbacks, often covering the same scene more than once. This use of flashbacks tends to confuse the film’s timeline and leave the audience playing catch-up.

However, as confusing as this film can be it’s also surprisingly engaging. Hartnett in particular does a tremendous job of drawing in the audience, gaining our sympathy and delivering in the big emotional moments. He is well matched with Kruger (whose face launched a thousand ships in Troy) with whom he has a terrific chemistry. Matthew Lillard is quite a surprise in a strong supporting role in which he drops his usual obnoxious posing in favor of real acting.

Lillard does not spark with Rose Byrne’s Alex but he’s not necessarily supposed to. Alex is the most complicated character in the film and also the most difficult to describe without giving something away. I can say that Byrne, who had a walk on in Troy with Diane Kruger, does what she can with this difficult role. If she did not succeed it’s likely because of how the character is written as opposed to her performance.

McGuigan, whose previous film was the underrated The Reckoning, does a fantastic job of disguising this paper-thin plot. His film style evokes a Eurpoean aesthetic, a likely nod to the film’s French roots. From its color palettes to its somber mood, it is very easy to imagine Wicker Park set in the classic French traditions of sidewalk cafes and disaffected artists. The script includes a quick nod to the Italian master Fellini, who also knew a little something about making the most of a thin plot.

Wicker Park is a stylish, well-acted romantic drama the likes of which we rarely see anymore. Yes, the plot is thin and becomes quite obviously so after you leave the theater but the good in Wicker Park far outweighs the bad. What makes it work is Hartnett in what could have been a comeback performance if MGM hadn’t decided to give up on it. What a shame to have your career best performance in a film so few people will see.

Movie Review: Troy

Troy (2004) 

Directed by Wolfgang Peterson

Written by David Benioff

Starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Diane Kruger, Brian Cox, Sean Bean, Peter O'Toole

Release Date May 14th, 2004

Published May 13th, 2004 

In this day and age, when you say Homer everyone thinks Simpson. It wasn't always that way. Years ago, colleges turned out erudite intellectuals who quoted the great poet Homer from "The Iliad" or "The Odyssey.” Maybe those people still exist but today more people can quote Homer Simpson than Homer the poet and the new Wolfgang Peterson epic Troy is not likely to change that. This bombastic, outsized blockbuster has the appeal of Brad Pitt and the scope of an age old epic but it lacks the soul of the poet who's work it attempts to revive.

Brad Pitt stars as Achilles, the greatest warrior in history. Though Achilles claims to have no allegiances, he fights for the money of King Agamemnon (Brian Cox). With Achilles’ sword, Agamemnon has conquered several kingdoms and his reach dominates the Greek kingdoms surrounding the Aegean Sea. Save for that of King Priam of Sparta (Peter O'Toole).

It seems that Sparta is unattainable even for someone as powerful as Agamemnon. Even the great king's brother Menelaus (Brendon Gleeson) has acceded that Sparta can't be taken, even going so far as to broker peace with King Priam's sons Hector (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom). The peace accord however is short lived when Paris takes a liking to Menelaus' wife Helen (Diane Kruger) and spirits her away to Sparta.

This development finally gives Agamemnon all the reason he needed to sack the last kingdom that stands in the way of his dominance. However, to take Sparta, a grand feat given Sparta's legendary impregnable walls, Agamemnon must once again call on Achilles to lead his armies. Achilles does not want to fight for Agamemnon no matter what the offer but does finally agree after a visit from his good friend Odysseus (Sean Bean) who promises something more valuable than riches, eternal glory.

That is the setup for massive CGI battles and a great deal of melodramatic speechifying. In all of the film’s nearly three-hour length there are pieces of three different full length movies edited together into Troy and only one of them would be any good. That is the story of Achilles who in the person of Brad Pitt is a charismatic and dangerous presence. Pitt's Achilles is powerful but conflicted and that makes him inherently dramatic. A film about Achilles would be terrific.

The story of Helen and Paris also has the potential as a stand-alone story. The story has love, passion and a great deal of drama. Cut up as it is here to make room for two other parallel stories, it loses impact. Helen is the reason that Sparta is about to be overrun in the greatest war of all time, therefore her importance to Paris needs more time to develop. Why would Paris risk his family and in fact an entire kingdom for her? We never really know. As it is in Troy, the love story comes off as the selfish petulance of a childish boy and his desperate crush.

The final story is the most poorly developed and that is the story of Eric Bana's Hector. It's not the fault of Bana who is a strong presence, nearly the equal of Pitt. Nearly. Hector's story is far more dramatic than what we see here. His conflicts with his father King Priam are given short shrift and Hector's only character traits are heroism. Hector is hardly ever conflicted, he has no great story arc. He begins as a hero and continues through the film as a hero beyond reproach.

In adapting Homer's epic poem, screenwriter David Benioff had to make a number of dramatic sacrifices including some I already mentioned and one that may be the most troublesome sacrifice of the film. In The Iliad, the Gods of Mount Olympus gave the conflict it's context, they provided motivation beyond the grandiose, nation chest-bumping that Agamemnon uses as motivation here. The meddling God's protected Achilles and gave his dramatic ending a bigger payoff.

There are two reasons for the excising of the God's from Troy. First, there just wasn't enough time to fit them in. The film is just too long to add any more characters, especially characters as outsized as the Gods. Secondly, and don't underestimate this one because this may be the real reason, the bad memories of Sir Laurence Olivier's screen chewing menace in Clash Of The Titans. Love or hate Clash, there is no denying the cheeseball nature of all of the scenes involving the Gods.

Director Wolfgang Peterson is a technician as a director. As his budgets have grown his love of technological filmmaking has overcome his sense of story and character. I say that as a criticism but I must also state that as a technician he is a terrific director. Technology however is not what is most appealing about a film. As George Lucas has shown, you can have all of the technology in the world and still not make a movie that engages. Dazzle the eye all day but if you can't reach the heart or mind, you have no movie. Brad Pitt engages both with his tremendous performance but little else in Troy rises to his level. 

Movie Review Inglorious Basterds

Inglorious Basterds (2009) 

Directed by Quentin Tarentino 

Written by Quentin Tarentino 

Starring Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Til Schweiger, Diane Kruger, Melanie Laurent, Michael Fassbender

Release Date August 21st, 2009 

Published August 20th, 2009 

Quentin Tarentino is now 5 for 5 in making masterpieces. The writer-director has nailed it out of the park with each movie he has made and his latest, Inglorious Basterds, is arguably his best work yet. Wildly violent, irreverent and strangely humorous, Inglorious Basterds reimagines World War 2 history with the kind of blood and guts guile that only Tarentino could muster.

Inglourious Basterds tells a story on two tracks. In one story a Jewish woman, Shoshanna (Melanie Laurent), escapes the murder of her family and seeks vengeance on the Nazis. In the other story a group of American Jewish soldiers are dropped behind enemy lines in Nazi controlled Paris under orders to kill and maim as many Nazi soldiers as they can. Boy, do they ever.

The Basterds, as they call themselves, are a bloodthirsty lot. Led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) the Basterds seek scalps, literally they scalp Nazis. Raine came to be known as 'the apache'. Another member of the Bastards becomes the fearful 'Bear Jew'. He's played by horror director Eli Roth who brings the same vicious streak demonstrated in his Hostel film series to a role that has him beating Nazis to death with a baseball bat. I have always suspected that Roth enjoyed his brutality, Inglorious Basterds provides the visual evidence.

Another of the Bastards is too brutal for a nickname. He is Stiglitz (Til Schweiger) a former German soldier who, despite not even being Jewish, began beheading Nazis for fun. Stiglitz is such a badass that the movie pauses to pay tribute to him with a montage narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.

The two stories of Inglorious Basterds collide when Shoshanna, now living in Paris under an assumed name and running a movie theater, gets her opportunity for vengeance with, of all things, the premiere of a German propaganda film at her theater. She plans to burn the place down with all of the Nazis inside. Meanwhile, the Basterds also plan on being at the movie premiere, especially after hearing that the Fuhrer himself will be attending.

The plot of Inglorious Basterds also makes room for a British Film Critic turned soldier (Michael Fassbender), and a German movie star (Diane Kruger) turned spy who help the Bastards get into the movie premiere. Trust me when I tell you that you will be surprised at the fates of each of these exceptionally well drawn characters.

Of course, a Quentin Tarentino movie is as much about a strong plot as it is about style and Inglorious Basterds is no different. Though the tone is a muddled mix of dark violence and darker comedy, Inglorious Basterds is, in classic Tarentino style, also a talky, literate, cinematic homage to all the movies QT loves. Stylish in the strangest ways, there are moments in Inglorious Basterds that approach elegance, especially scenes set in that gorgeous Parisian movie theater.

Brad Pitt is the headliner of one knockout cast. In one of the least glamorous roles since his redneck debut in Thelma & Louise, Pitt shows the ease and charm of a huge movie star and the grit of a classically Tarentino hero. Combining a dark sense of humor with the witty candor of Tarentino, Pitt surprises at every turn and is the glue of the movie.

But, Brad Pitt is far from the only standout. Christoph Waltz is Oscar Worthy as the Nazi known as the Jew Hunter. Daniel Bruhl also strikes all the right notes as a humble Nazi war hero turned propaganda movie star, and newcomer Melanie Laurent is a real scene stealer as Shoshanna whose revenge on the Nazis is a real cinematic treat.

Quentin Tarentino tames a wildly irreverent story by directing the violence, dark humor and endless talk as one giant symphony. His graceful movements from violence to verbiage are almost elegant in their ease and flow. Where some would argue that Tarentino's chapter to chapter style in Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill movies could be choppy and disjointed, that same style rolls effortlessly in Inglorious Basterds. Wildly violent and yet smooth in its way, Inglourious Basterds is Quentin Tarentino at his auteurist best. Few directors have a style all their own, Tarentino is one the few and arguably the best working today.

Movie Review The Hunting Party

The Hunting Party (2007) 

Directed by Richard Shepard 

Written by Richard Shepard 

Starring Richard Gere, Terrence Howard, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Kruger, James Brolin, Dylan Baker 

Release Date September 14th, 2007 

Published September 13th, 2007 

Do you remember the so-called "Scud Stud"? His real name was Arthur Kent and for the uninitiated Kent was the undisputed media star of the first Iraq war. Standing against a starry Baghdad sky with missile alarms in the background and explosions not far out of the frame, Kent's handsome, steely veneer and unshakable calm was the enduring media image of the war, even beyond the deified danger boys over at CNN, probably because Bernard Shaw just isn't as pleasant to look at. Desert Storm was the peak of Arthur Kent's career. He failed in his attempt to get a massive new deal with NBC, his arrogance pricing him out of a market that already had its share of pampered divas.

Kent has since carved out a respectable career in documentaries and hosting specials on the History Channel, but he will always be the Scud Stud. The new movie The Hunting Party is a movie about a journalist not unlike Mr. Kent. The roguishly handsome, globetrotter played by Richard Gere flames out more spectacularly than Kent did, after becoming the star of the forgotten 90's conflict in Bosnia. Now a shell of the journalist he once was, he stumbles on the opportunity to regain his fortune. With the help of his trusted cameraman, played by Terrence Howard, he's going to capture the world's most wanted terrorist. If only Arthur Kent had flipped this badly, imagine The Scud Stud trying to hunt down Saddam Hussein. 

Richard Gere is perfectly cast in The Hunting Party as Simon, a man who became a media darling for his daring coverage of the Bosnian conflict. With his trusty cameraman Duck (Terrence Howard), Simon wasn't afraid to go into the fire fight if it meant getting great visuals and a great story to tell. A diva on the air and off, Simon basked in worldwide fame and its trappings, mostly in Serbian bars with beautiful Serbian women on each arm and a drink in every hand. Then, as the conflict worsened and the genocide became clearer, Simon snapped. During a live network shot from an ethnically cleansed village where bodies still burned, Simon uttered words that no one can utter on television.

He was fired immediately and began a spiraling descent, shooting and selling his own reports to tiny nations' state TV networks. Meanwhile, Duck got promoted right out of Bosnia, into a cushy gig in New York. He didn't see Simon again for nearly a decade when networks returned to Bosnia to celebrate ten years of a peace accord. Simon hasn't been heard of, even on state TV, in a few years but he too has returned and he has a story that Duck cannot resist. Simon knows where an infamous Bosnian terror leader is hiding and that though the CIA and the United Nations are supposed to be chasing him, they are in fact helping to hide him away.

With Duck and a young producer, Benjamin (Jesse Eisenberg), in tow, Simon makes the journey into terrorist controlled territory for what Duck and Ben thinks will be the interview of a lifetime but is really Simon's last shot at glory. Simon intends to capture the terrorist and expose the hypocrisy of the system that protected him for a decade. Hiding this fact from Duck and Benjamin, the story turns on whether this is Simon's quest for redemption or merely an arrogant and dangerous ploy from an egomaniac grasping at straws. 

Written and directed by Richard Shepard, who crafted the modestly brilliant The Matador in 2006, The Hunting Party is based on the true story of several international journalists who did in fact seek out and find Bosnian war criminals who were being squirreled away by international politicians who would rather sweep the genocide under the rug than go to the trouble of an international trial. The main character is an American because The Hunting Party was made by Americans for Americans. That is a little insulting but nothing new from a Hollywood that has never trusted the audience to simply enjoy a well told story regardless of the nation of origin.

My cynicism about Hollywood aside, Richard Gere is the perfect actor to play Simon. Playing the crusading journalist or the pretty boy egotist, Gere wears this character like an old suit and his comfort is a comfort to us. Effortlessly charismatic, few actors hold the screen as well as Gere. The weak link here, surprisingly, is Terrence Howard who may be falling victim to Kevin Spacey syndrome. Ever since his breakthrough Oscar nomination for Hustle and Flow, Howard seems to be over-serious in every role. Whether it's the swim coach in Pride who seems constantly on the verge of tears or his the social worker of August Rush who also seems on the verge of tears, Howard is straining to bring a little extra drama to every role. In The Hunting Party, Howard is only slightly less weepy. 

The role of Duck calls for hard bitten manliness crossed with slightly over the hill cynicism. Howard tries to play that idea but then strains things to the point of once again seeming on the verge of tears. The same struggle has swallowed the career of Kevin Spacey who now plays every role with dewy eyes. It's a shame because the character of Duck is a vital cog in the machinery of The Hunting Party and without him the film goes from exciting to adequate and from thrilling to modestly compelling. This is a good story, well told by director Richard Shepard and terrific by Richard Gere but it only gets a partial recommendation because Howard fumbles his important role.